Party Games
by WolfMoonSinger
Summary: Inari is a college girl with an "imaginary" friend. Ikuye is plagued at night by the monster in her closet. What caused this to happen, you may ask? Damn party games. And when these two meet, they decide to never let this happen to anyone else ever again. Rated for horror elements as well as language.
1. Kokkuri-san

"Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, if you're here, please move this coin."

A wind rustled the curtains at the kitchen window, and Inari smiled. "Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, is it you here with me?"

The coin under her finger jerked once to the left, away from the gate freshly painted on the paper, then slid to the right over the word "YES." The parchment in front of her was covered in letters and numbers, a couple of small, common words, as well. Since she was a child and she watched her older brother play this game, she had talked to Kokkuri-san quite often. He was a spirit who, she came to find out later, was part fox, dog, and raccoon, and he was often called upon to answer questions. Years before, he had merely kept Inari company and played word games with her that she liked to invent. Now, he was her confidante, and she liked to ask for his advice.

He could be a trickster.

He could be a liar.

Either way, he was her friend.

"Kokkuri-san, I forgot to say goodbye to you last night. Did you move my pencil sharpener?"

"Yes."

"Kokkuri-san, where did you put it?"

"Bed."

She laughed and replied sarcastically, "You're so creative. Alright, next question."

It went on like this every day for about an hour. Sometimes she cried to Kokkuri-san about her problems, and he didn't like it when she cried. To make her stop, he would push something off the table, so she quickly fell into the habit of clearing it off before she started up a conversation. Most of the time, though, their talks were pretty calm.

"Can I ask you about my future today, Kokkuri-san?" Inari asked with a dreamy smile. He wouldn't let her ask those questions yesterday.

"Yes."

"Will I meet my Scorpio this week?"

"No."

Pouting, she added, "Kokkuri-san, can you please tell me his name again?"

The coin flashed across the board, quickly spelling out the name of a man. Kokkuri-san had told Inari once that this was the name of her future soulmate, but wouldn't tell her when they would meet.

"Kokkuri-san, what does he look like?"

She thought she heard a whispered laugh in her ear and the coin moved back to the red gate. Eyes wide, she huffed. She hadn't been specific enough for him to answer with the paper board. Rolling her eyes, she rephrased her question and asked what color his hair was.

"Dark."

Is he tall?

"Yes."

Is he kind?

"Stop."

"What?" Inari asked indignantly. "Why?" The coin slipped quickly across the paper again, spelling out an entire phrase.

"Perfect. For. You."

It filled her stomach with a warm feeling that rose into her chest and gave her chills down her spine. "Thank you, Kokkuri-san," she said gratefully, "I hope you have a decent evening. Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please return home."

The coin covered "Yes" and she felt the breeze rush past her again. When the wind had gone through the window and the curtains stopped rustling, she slowly got up and shut Kokkuri-san's portal in. Inari lit a large, white candle on her countertop and held the board over the flame until it burned the red gate away. There was an unusually loud hiss when it disappeared, and she made sure the rest of the paper burned away to nothing but a pile of ash. Sweeping it out t front door, she ran to her room, fished the hand-held pencil sharpener out from under her bed, and started sketching like nothing paranormal had just occured.

Outside her bedroom window, a long, narrow muzzle, patched with red and brown, leered against the sill. A creature resembling a giant, wild dog sat there, its thick ringed tail wagging about with nothing to do. Something whispered around its mane and it looked up, staring into the distance. Another wind blew, and it was gone.


	2. Inner Demons: In the Dark

It was three in the morning, and Ikuye couldn't sleep again. Frowning up at the ceiling, she was forcing herself not to look to the left. Every night, the temptation grew stronger and stronger, but she knew she couldn't give in. Before, she had tried to just sleep in the guest room, but the same thing kept happening. So, sleeping in the living room had seemed liked a good option, but then her mother had gotten suspicious and asked her to stop.

And here she was. Back in her own room.

Where it was no longer safe.

You see, there was a demon who lived in her closet. Every night, the door to her closet would creak open and from inside glared out a pair of crimson eyes, watching her every move. It went away during the day time, and she had to make sure she had a light on to even access it. The lightbulbs would burn out if she left the light on for more than an hour or two. It hated light more than anything.

She didn't fear it much, she just feared being dragged to Hell. It wasn't her time, and no one could own her soul but herself. Why let a close demon have it? Ikuye snickered to herself. Instead of inner demons or a skeleton in her closet, she had an inner closet demon. Oh, the bad jokes just kept on rolling.

"I really wish you'd go away," she muttered, "Seriously, it's getting irritating." Rolling over on her side, she tried to force herself to sleep again. It was going to be a long night.

"Show me the light or leave me in darkness." Those words and a few matches were all it took to change her life. Others from school had talked about playing the Closet Game as kids, with nothing happening. Curiousity had gotten the best of Ikuye, of course, so she had to try it. Unfortunately for her, her classmates apparently didn't have nearly the psychic awareness that she did, because... well... simply put, she just couldn't open a damn closet anymore. No one else could see it, and that's what made it worse.

This mistake of hers had led her into a new daytime hobby, researching the ghosts and demons that were the centers of all of these party games. If one looked deeply enough as she had, they would realize that the spirits with names were the same entity throughout the world. Take one out, and the game would never work ever again. This wasn't the case for the demon in her closet, and she hadn't yet found a way to get rid of it, but she at least was a little conforted that there likely was a way.

She tried to count alpacas, and eventually did fall into a sleep spotted with demons trying to drag her down into eternal darkness.

Ikuye had the next day off of school, so she went back to the library and sat down with an old daemonology book she hadn't perused yet and immediately went to the index. Reptile tails, demons with goat horns, demons with three tits, demons with red eyes! The list of demons with red eyes, though, was long. It took a long time to find one that lived in the closets of those who summoned it there.

_"The summoning spell follows as such."_

She wasn't interested in summoning it, she'd already crossed that bridge. What she wanted to know was how to burn it to the ground. Matches in a closet were the wrong kind of fire. Heart pounding in her throat, one thought was racing through her mind. _I'm so fucking close. So. Fucking._

_ Close._

A wild shriek ripped from her throat, and she did get thrown out of the library for it, but there had been nothing on either side of the page about how to get rid of it. Everything was just about summoning it. Another dead end, another hope torn from her, just like that. Silently cursing both life and herself, she shoved her hands in her pockets as she descended from the steps of the library, but she bumped into another girl on the way down.

"Sorry," she grumbled gruffly and kept moving.

There was a pause, and then, "You know, there's a simple way of getting rid of your problem."

Ikuye froze and turned to the girl, not much younger than hersef with long auburn hair and blue-green eyes that stared at her earnestly. "What did you say?" she asked.

"Well, okay, it's _relatively_ simple. It's a demon, right?" Her head turned ever so slightly to the side, as if something was whispering in her ear, and the stranger looked back at Ikuye. "You can't do it on your own, but I know an exorcist who can purify your home and drive it away. He's quite powerful."

Ikuye snorted. "I've already tried purification, it doesn't work. All that happens is the demon burns up all of the cleansing spell tags I put on the door."

"Maybe it's not a Shinto demon." Leaning against the stone side of the steps, she continued, "But no, seriously, I know a Catholic priest. He's getting up there in years, but he's got plenty of experience. He owes me a favor, anyway."

Ikuye grabbed her by the shoulders forcefully and looked deep into her eyes. "Are you serious?" she asked in a low tone, "Do you seriously think that this priest can help get rid of that... that thing living in my closet?"

"Almost ninety-nine percent positive. There's always the off-chance that something will go horrible wrong." A small smirk lit up Inari's face. "But I think you'll find him to be quite competent. Come, let's go call him."

The two girls walked side-by side away from the library, headed towards Inari's apartment. "By the way, what's your name? And what in God's name did you do that an exorcist owes you a favor...?"


End file.
